Addy took a careful breath and let it out slowly, making sure Harris didn’t pick up on her unease. “Like I said. I’ve taken a bullet before. Technically stopped breathing and died. And I promised myself back then that I wasn’t going to live my life in fear.”
Promised that to Mack—her estranged husband—too, but he wasn’t in her life anymore so that really didn’t matter now, did it?
Harris rested her hands on the glass desktop, her manicured nails clear-coated. “I’m not saying to live in fear, but I am telling you to be cautious. You’re on to something big in your investigation, and Razo means business. If in fact he’s the person behind the threat.”
“I don’t see how it could be anyone else. You reassigned all my pending investigations to Warren, and no one else has a reason to tell me to stop.”
Harris locked gazes with her. “Exactly. The guy is dangerous, and that’s why you need to be extra careful.”
Addy knew that too. Razo was primarily a drug importer, getting his drugs from the Mexican cartels. He used the I-5 corridor running through Portland to move the drugs. The Interstate was a main artery from Mexico to Canada and was a very common route for smuggling drugs. Not just for Razo but for countless other dealers.
But lately he got involved with gun sales too. Not just any gun, but miniguns. The diminutive nameminigundidn’t do the weapon justice. It was a six-barreled rotary cannon that could fire up to a hundred bullets per second. The cartels in Mexico were slaughtering people with them. She’d seen the photographic proof.
Word on the street was that he’d bought five guns from the cartels and was going to smuggle them into the U.S. in six days, yet she didn’t know how. She also didn’t have a clear indication of his plans for the weapons. There was great money to be made in the sale of these special guns, but if he kept them, he could use the guns to quickly eliminate his competition and greatly expand his drug-distribution territory. Either way, she’d been charged with stopping him before innocent people lost their lives.
“I can call in a favor from Seattle and try to get a protection detail on you too,” Harris offered.
Addy shook her head. “Not necessary. I’ll be more cautious. And I have Bear. No one is going to get past him.”
“Bear?”
“He’s a retired police dog Mack and I adopted. Big German shepherd. He lives with me. Razo drugged him when he broke into the house. After I dropped Mom and Nancy at the safe house, I took him to the vet. She says he’ll recover, and right now he’s home snoozing off the drugs.”
Harris arched an eyebrow. “Clearly someone can get past him, then.”
“Yeah, I guess. But I wasn’t home, and my mom ignores him. I wouldn’t. I can also stay at a hotel tonight until he recovers as my watchdog, and I’ll be fine.” Plus, she wouldn’t have to deal with the fingerprint powder scattered around her house tonight.
“The hotel is a good idea. Not just for tonight either. Until we have Razo in custody. Let’s book the room under a bogus name like we’d do for someone we were protecting. And to the extent that’s possible, try not to be out and about alone.”
Addy nodded but wondered who would run necessary errands for her. Like get her mom’s meds that were waiting at the pharmacy for pickup. Addy didn’t have a man in her life. Not even one on the horizon.
She’d been separated from Mack for a year and a half, and she was still in love with him so she hadn’t even contemplated dating someone else. She’d left D.C. to move to Portland to care for her mother. Addy sure wasn’t going to ask her seventy-eight-year-old mother to come out of hiding and accompany her into danger. So who then?
“I’ll also have IT try to track down the email with the video and enhance it,” Harris continued. “Maybe then we can see distinguishing marks on the masked assailant. At least on the little bit of skin that’s showing.”
“He had something on his hand, but I couldn’t tell what it was, other than the knitting-needle injury.” With Addy’s past experience in network security, and as a former RED team member, she knew tracking the email back to an actionable location bordered on impossible, but they could get lucky.
“And I want an update on the investigation. Maybe I’ll find something that can pinpoint this threat even more.”
“I don’t want us to lose focus on the investigation to concentrate on my safety, though. That’s just what Razo wants. Especially now. Something big is going down in six days. Word on the street says he’s stepping up his game in a big way and bringing in five miniguns.”
“Okay.” Harris looked at her watch. “Give me two hours, and we’ll meet in the conference room.”
“Can we push it to later in the day?” Addy asked, as she’d been on the verge of a breakthrough when the video popped up in her email.
Harris turned to her laptop. “I can do four o’clock, but that’s the latest. Bring all your files. I want details, not just a cursory update.” She flicked her fingers in dismissal, then grabbed the handset of her ringing phone.
Addy headed out to the small bullpen area, where the smell of stale popcorn lingered in the air. Warren sat behind his desk and looked up at her, his eyes inquisitive. A veteran agent, he was still sharp and didn’t miss a thing. “I take it you showed Harris the video.”
Addy rested her arm on the padded wall of his cubicle. “I did. She’s fired up about it.”
“I told you she’d take it personally.” He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. “You don’t mess with her agents.”
“I appreciate that, but she also wants an update. I need to get my files organized and prepare a report for her.”
“I should’ve warned you she’d ask for that.” He scratched his reddish-blond hair, messing up the neat haircut.
Addy pushed off the cubicle. “How’d you know that?”
